ELYSIA SYRIAC
Creative Jam
Expanding participation and streamlining operations
Areas of Focus
Events, Production, Community Engagement, Operations
Team
Team Lead: Rachel Elnar
Sr Program Manager: Elysia Syriac
Director: David Carr-Berry
Sound Design: Nate Beltz
Line Producer: Heather Lynn
Marketing: Eva Crawford
Optimize
By customizing a template of an event we reduced planning from 6 weeks to 3 weeks and increased overall cadence from 1-2 a month to 3-4.
System Design
Adding Airtable to workflow reduced meeting time and the efficiency of proofing rounds by half, and giving each team member at least one hour more per week.
Operationalize
Added a group of professionals to score the projects with an aligned rubric. This allowed for 600 projects to be reviewed in 24 hours and distilled to the top ten. The review group has grown from 25 to 150.
Collaborate
Created a Google Sheet for judges to score the final projects saved 15 minutes per show, reduced errors and allowed the team to award winners immediately.
CHALLENGE
Take an in-person program and make it virtual. Simplify the program to increase the number of participants and frequency, while maintaining the operating team's size.
RESULTS
I took a strategic approach to workflow management. I developed the systems and workflows that allowed the program to go from 30 students up to 2000 as well as taking a cadence of events from 150 to 25 events each year and each event requires two shows.
This included the team building formalized show structure to shortern planning time; the development of a professional pool of judges who would use a vetted scoring rubric to review the student work; and the use of shared documents to award show winners immediately.
But the systems development didn't end there, I also focused on supporting the team with a RACI chart to eliminate confusion and ensured accountability when roles changed on the team.
I introduced Airtable as a centralized hub for team activities. This tool streamlined event scheduling, tracked deadlines, and monitored status updates. The results were tangible and impactful: status meetings were reduced from one hour to just 30 minutes, proofing rounds became twice as efficient, and each team member saved at least one hour per week—a significant boost to productivity.
To complement these efforts, I also established a bird's-eye view of the team's workload. This holistic perspective not only improved the team's ability to manage their projects but also enhanced reporting on program effectiveness.
I also trained to be a host of the event, and was critical to the partner recruitment of brands like Patagonia, HBO, Instagram, Airbnb and more.